Leo Sher, M.D.

A research paper, “Patterns of altered regional brain glucose metabolism in borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder” has been published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica online ahead of print (1). The authors examined brain glucose metabolism in patients with borderline personality disorder, in patients with bipolar II disorder, and healthy controls.

In all, 65 individuals participated in the study. There were 22 patients with borderline personality disorder, 22 patients with bipolar II disorder, and 21 healthy control subjects. Study participants were examined using 2-deoxy-2[18F]-fluoro-dglucose positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning. Researchers compared the groups pairwise.

Both patient groups, i.e., patients with borderline personality disorder and patients with bipolar II disorder showed hypometabolism in comparison with healthy controls in insula, brainstem, and frontal white matter. Also, patients with borderline personality disorder showed hypometabolism in hypothalamus, midbrain, and striatum. Patients with bipolar II disorder exhibited hypometabolism in cerebellum. Uncorrected analyses showed cortical areas of higher metabolism in patients with bipolar II disorder in comparison to patients with borderline personality disorder, and associations with clinical variables differed between the groups.

The authors suggest that their findings indicate that borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder share several, but also show some unique, neurobiological characteristics.

Reference

1. Bøen E, Hjørnevik T, Hummelen B, Elvsåshagen T, Moberget T, Holtedahl JE, Babovic A, Hol PK, Karterud S, Malt UF. Patterns of altered regional brain glucose metabolism in borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2018 Dec 15. doi: 10.1111/acps.12997. [Epub ahead of print]